PHYSIOLOGICAL ONTOGENY

Abstract

The chief results of the studies here reported have been (1) the correlation between growth as a whole and the differentiation of gross form (primary redistributions or simple evolution), and (2) the correlation between internal integration or concentration and the differentiation of chemical form (secondary redistributions or compound evolution). With the latter are also associated the catabolic rate and the latent period or reaction time after implantation in plasma as demonstrated in tissue culture experiments. Moreover, it has been shown that these two chief developmental processes occur at different rates, and that they undergo their greatest changes in rate at different periods of embryonic life. Corresponding with Robertson's growth acceleration periods there may be three cycles or rhythms of which the embryonic phase is the first, each composed of a period of growth followed by a period of differentiation. This conception is somewhat analogous to Roux's notion of dividing the life span into two chief periods (1) embryonic for the growth of organ rudiments and (2) post-embryonic, characterized by functional development. The first period of total growth and form differentiation seems to cover the time when the main, but bare, outline or scaffolding of the organism is laid down. The second period, correlated as it is with catabolism (function), corresponds, not in time but as a phenomenon, with Roux's period of functional form development.